The Orlando Pride (6-4-4, 22 points) came back to their home stadium looking to continue their winning ways after 6 straight road victories. The Houston Dash (4-5-5, 17 points) had something else in mind. After dominating most of the play in the match, Houston managed to take the win with a 2-1 score in front of a crowd of 3,215 fans.
The Pride went up early with an Alex Morgan goal in the 22’nd minute. Orlando dominated ball play in the first half, with 15 shots (a team record), 267 passes, and 64% possession. The Pride posted a season high 21 shots in the match, Morgan even had a penalty kick opportunity in the 11th minute of the match, but Morgan’s shot hit the post.
“Yeah, I mean I score that penalty, I score that chip that I should have put away and we could have been 3-0 up. I’m a little disappointed in myself just with my lack of finishing tonight. I think that tonight we got a lot of quality chances, 100 percent chances that we should have put away and it came to bite us in the end, which is really unfortunate.”
Orlando definitely got bit in the end as Houston scored two goals in the final four minutes of play. In the 79th minute, Houston took advantage of its chances. First, forward Kealina Ohai looked to cross the ball but mishit it and the ball ended up in the upper 90 of Harris’ goal as Houston leveled the game at one.
Then, in the 82nd minute, Ohai again tried to send a ball across — this time from inside the box. The ball hit Monica’s outstretched arm and the referee immediately pointed to the spot and midfielder Sofia Huerta buried the penalty.
“[Ohai] is always a dangerous player and dangerous players, at some stage in the game, are going to create something. But I don’t sit here and say she produced two bits of magic to win the game because she didn’t.” Head Coach Tom Sermanni said. “If she did I would say so but it was simply a mishit cross and an unfortunate penalty.”
The Pride return to Orlando City Stadium in just three days, hosting the North Carolina Courage for the second time this season.
